More than 60 Multimedia PC (MPC) titles and development tools made their collective “debut” at the MPC Event hosted by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council in New York on October 8. Microsoft, plus a supporting cast of MPC vendors and developers of MPC titles, staged the presentation at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Event was designed to demonstrate that, less than a year after the birth of the MPC standard, significant progress has been made. MPC titles are numerous. MPC systems and upgrade kits are beginning to be released. MPC authoring software is available and powerful. And distribution channels for MPC titles and hardware have been established.

Working with the limitations. The MPC platform combines a graphical user interface (Microsoft Windows with Multimedia Extensions), three kinds of audio capability, VGA graphics and the CD-ROM delivery medium. MPC is not yet digital television or movies on disc. It is, however, interactive animation, color photographs, voice, music, sound effects, drawings and nonlinear (“hyper”) structure, added to conventional computer applications and text.

The titles and authoring tools demonstrated in New York are not all available yet. But by and large, all seemed to combine the MPC elements in effective ways while finding a way to work within the limitations of the MPC standard.

Although MPC-labeled titles must be able to run on a 10-mhz ‘286 PC and a VGA display monitor (usually with 16 shades of gray), most are clearly intended to be used in ‘386 or ‘486-based machines — often with VGA 640×480 graphics in 256 shades of color. The ‘286 requirement is almost irrelevant, according to most MPC developers.

Titles old and new. Many of the MPC titles are new versions of old DOS CD-ROMS with new graphics and audio components; Macintosh CD-ROMS ported to the MPC; or floppy-based games or other applications, enhanced by multimedia elements stored on CD-ROM.

Among the most impressive titles are interactive storybooks and games for children who cannot yet read or are learning to read. Using animation, voice and other audio elements, these include entries from Broderbund, Sierra On-Line, Voyager, EBook and Context Systems.

Reference works and language learning have always demonstrated the advantages of a multimedia computer. Adding color photos, detailed diagrams and maps, timelines, speech, music, animation and hypertext search to encyclopedias, atlases, travel guides, art and history books, dictionaries, thesauruses and even the Guinness Book of World Records makes consulting reference works more informative and fun.

Publishers of such products include Syracuse Learning Systems, Britannica Software, InterOptica Publishing, Maxwell Electronic Publishing, Microsoft, Software Toolworks and Warner New Media.

Computer game and simulation developers appreciate the enormous data density of CD-ROMS for multimedia information. One example is the popular SimCity by Maxis. Tiger Media and Sierra On-Line showed adventure and “parlor” games.

Because of the audio capabilities of the MPC, many music-related titles are being developed. Microsoft is distributing an MPC version of Voyager’s Multimedia Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony. Passport Design, TRAX, Midisoft and Opcode also showed music editors for the MPC.

Periodicals, authoring tools, clip libraries. Three periodicals are slated to be published in the MPC format: Nautilus for the MPC, Verbum Interactive and Windows Information Manager MM.

More than a dozen authoring tools for the MPC were in evidence in New York, including products from AimTech, Autodesk, Authorware, MacroMind, Owl, Gold Disk and Knowledge Garden. Clip libraries of MPC art work, music and sound effects were shown by many, including Applied Optical Media, Corel, the Hyper Media Group, Prosonus and Killer Tracks.

Is MPC a winner? In addition to the variety of depth of titles and tools, distribution was also highlighted. Babbages, Ingram Micro, Merisel and other resellers announced that they will distribute MPC titles. Hardware manufacturers including Fujitsu, NCR, NEC, Olivetti, Philips, Tandy and Headland Technology, will sell MPC systems or upgrade kits. And 85 companies are listed as committed to developing titles for MPC platforms.

Does all of the above make MPC a winner? For the customer, upgrading a PC or buying a ready-to-run MPC system, then paying hundreds of dollars for titles, still seems expensive in relation to the benefits. It is not obvious that one of the titles shown in New York will be the VisiCalc or Lotus 1-2-3 of the MPC world, or that in the absence of full-motion video or drastically lower prices, MPC will be successful. On the other hand, MPC does give users a way to turn the most widely used computer platform into something quite remarkable.

Bernard Banet